2015 Hillsboro Roubaix – Cat 4 – Ryan Harden

Overall my race was okay. A botched clip-in at the start forced me to spend too much time in the second half of the pack the first lap. Did a lot of yoyoing/wasting energy before I decided to move up. I sat in the top 10 of the pack for the last third of the first lap. I was feeling pretty good at this point.

Tyler attacked on the climb and I hung until about half way when I started to drift back. I maintained contact until about halfway through the bricks and drifted back 25M or so.

I maintained that gap for about 3 miles into the second lap before flicking my elbow to have the Half Acre guy pull for a bit. He got beside and said he couldn't hold that pace, so he pulled for maybe 30 seconds and the 25M turned into 50+. I got back on and we maintained that gap until I was out of gas. Once the group got to 100M+ I looked over and said 'looks like our race is over'. He apologized and said 'sorry, if you had help, you definitely could have caught them'. I said no worries and we rode together for 4-5 miles until he came across a buddy who flatted and stopped. So I was on my own.

I rode solo until maybe 5 miles left. I took a Busch Light hand up much to amusement of the gentlemen on the side of the rode. It was probably the best tasting Busch Light I've ever drank but still tossed it after 3-4 drinks.

At 5ish miles left, I was caught by a group of dropped riders that included the Half Acre guy and his buddy. I ended up finishing 4th or so in that group.

Overall pretty happy with my race. It went pretty much how I expected. If it wasn't for that climb, I probably would have finished in the main group. No idea where I finished, results weren't posted when I left (and aren't posted at the time of writing.)

After race Wendy's Cheeseburger and Frosty are the best thing ever. Maybe even better than post-race beers.